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Archived News
9th April 2002
Zimbabwe at the Crossroads: Transition or Conflict?
Statement From The International Ecumenical Peace Observer Mission On The Zimbabwe Presidential Election 2002
Zimbabwe - Eddie Cross on the aftermath
New doubts cast on Mugabe victory
No more Mr Nice Guy, Mugabe tells protesters
Charge against Zim reporter 'is baseless'
How I found ugly truth of Mugabe's police state
Zimbabwe crisis talks open today helped by South Africa and Nigeria
Telegraph reporter charges dropped
1 000 Flee Zanu PF Terror in Zaka, Gutu
Australia to discuss Zimbabwe with New Zealand, Canada
Mbeki Should Do to Mugabe What Vorster Did to Ian Smith
Opposition in 'peace talks' with Zanu PF
Unity talks in Zimbabwe put in doubt
Meeting delayed
Mugabe exit to top talks
Obasanjo initiated Zanu PF, MDC talks
Tales of torture as Zim death toll rises
US to deliver food aid for hungry Zimbabweans
Mediators see Harare politicians
Mugabe holds up unity talks
Mediators battle to touch sides
Zim rights groups to defy protest ban
344 NCA activists arrested
Mugabe's mobs in new terror campaign
Greater Harare airspace now no-fly zone
Zimbabwe warns protesters
Harare police round up 350 women
Berserk soldiers beat up Gweru residents again
MDC MP escapes attack by gunmen
Suspension 'based on consultation'
Zim pushed on peace deal
Mugabe fares worst in African survey
Mugabe's cronies upset by travel ban
Zimbabwe protests stifled by riot police
By the truckload, women against Mugabe have their day in court
War vets open fire on farmer
Zanu PF delegation to talks too combative
Zanu PF demands food from Rusape retailers
Mixed fortunes for Mugabe’s men
Mugabe's Congo fortune under fire
Mbeki was told Zim counting was rigged
More than 60 still in Zim jail
Zanu PF militia on the rampage
MDC: No govt of national unity
CIO officer spearheads Chimanimani terror
Dabengwa's daughter deported from US
Mugabe party is forced into talks with opposition
Mugabe's rivals 'face threat' in coalition
Mugabe in Libya to beg for more money, oil
Ghanaian observers say Zimbabwean election results unacceptable
Matabeleland farm violence
Mfume says Mugabe's treatment of opposition is anti-democratic
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From The International Herald Tribune,
New doubts cast on Mugabe victory
Fearing election defeat, aides said to have inflated vote totals
New allegations that Robert Mugabe won last month's presidential election by fraud are presenting the United States, the Commonwealth and African governments with a delicate political problem: How to pressure Mugabe to relinquish power without triggering chaos in Zimbabwe. The new fraud charges center on what happened in the hours before the Mugabe government's official announcement that he had won the March 9-11 election with 53 percent of the vote. According to Western officials who have interviewed reliable sources inside Zimbabwe, the ruling Zanu PF Party manipulated those reported results through a "command center" in the capital, Harare, that was supervised by two of Mugabe's top aides: the minister of state for national security, Nicholas Goche, and the Zanu PF secretary for administration, Emmerson Mnangawa.
According to officials who have seen detailed intelligence reports on the new charges, officials at the Zanu PF command center realized that despite attempts to reduce the opposition vote Mugabe was running well behind and was in danger of losing by 200,000 to 300,000 votes. The Mugabe operatives were said to have been surprised by how well the opposition candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, and his Movement for Democratic Change were doing in Mashonaland, a rural area in central Zimbabwe that was expected to back Mugabe. Fearing they would lose, officials in the Zanu PF command center "fiddled the figures" by adding tens of thousands of names to Mugabe's total before the ballots were sent on to the Registrar-General, Tobaiwa Mudede, for a final count, according to an official who has reviewed the evidence gathered by Zimbabwean insiders.
During the period when votes were being counted, there was a sudden jump in the total votes cast, from 2.4 million to 2.9 million, according to R.W. Johnson, a former Oxford professor who was in Zimbabwe at the time covering the elections for a British newspaper. Johnson said Monday in a telephone interview from South Africa that the sudden increase was "totally unexplained" at the time, and was "bigger than the president's winning margin." The final total of votes cast was just over 3 million. These inside accounts suggest that there may have been an extra layer of manipulation in the Zimbabwe election process - beyond the intimidation and violence that already has drawn worldwide condemnation. The new reports indicate that Mugabe would have lost even after what observers described as a massive Zanu PF campaign to intimidate opposition voters, especially in urban areas.
Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since it became independent in 1980, has dismissed charges of improprieties in the election process and has called his victory a "stunning blow to imperialism". The new reports sharpen the dilemma for other governments in the region, especially those of South Africa and Nigeria. They reluctantly agreed to back a Commonwealth decision March 19 to suspend Zimbabwe for one year. That decision followed reports by Commonwealth observers that Mugabe's victory had been "marred by a high level of politically motivated violence". The political choice is especially delicate for the South African president, Thabo Mbeki, whose nation borders Zimbabwe and has been a crucial ally for Mugabe in the past. The South Africans, joined by Nigeria, had initially backed Mugabe's victory claims but then switched to join Australia in urging the Commonwealth sanctions. Analysts believe that continued pressure by Mbeki could force political change in Zimbabwe and reduce the flight by white-owned businesses and individuals from that country and South Africa.
Immediately after Mugabe announced victory, the United States rejected the election as "neither free nor fair." The State Department said in that March 12 statement that it was considering expanding its own existing economic sanctions against Mugabe's regime. The new allegations about vote-rigging have been shared with the United States, Britain, Australia and some other Commonwealth countries. Officials who had been briefed on the reports made them available last week to the International Herald Tribune. Several studies of the Zimbabwe election have pointed to massive irregularities, both in the run-up to the vote and in the actual tabulation of ballots. Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change, or MDC, said in a report issued in early March that in the weeks before the election, 83 of its rallies had been disrupted or cancelled, and that its "members and people perceived to be supporters were tortured, beaten and killed." The MDC report also charged that prior to the election, "the number of polling stations was vastly reduced in urban areas and increased in rural areas." The report also contended that MDC operatives "were prevented by Zanu PF militia from deploying polling agents in 52 percent of rural polling stations."
More evidence of irregularities comes from Johnson, the former Oxford professor, who has conducted numerous political polls in Zimbabwe for the Helen Suzman Foundation in South Africa, which he directed until recently. Johnson has also written occasional articles about Zimbabwe for The Sunday Times of London. In a paper prepared after the balloting, Johnson focused on the role played by the registrar-general, Mudede, who had responsibility for certifying the final count and the integrity of Zimbabwe's official electoral rolls. A key issue, according to Johnson, is the number of people officially registered as voters. After repeated lawsuits, a reform group called the Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust was allowed to examine the official register early this year and counted about 5.2 million voters. Then in the remaining two months before the election, according to Johnson, Zanu PF "rushed out and illegally registered 400,000 extra voters in rural areas, all of whom Mudede added to his final roll, which came out at 5,612,272 voters."
"It is child's play to show that this voters' roll of 5.6 million is nonsense," Johnson wrote in his paper. He said that studies show the actual voting age population in Zimbabwe is only about 4.8 million. "Thus around 1.8 million of the people on Mudede's roll do not really exist - thus providing him and Zanu PF with a vast reservoir of fictional voters who can be 'mobilized' at will when the going gets tough," he wrote. What's more, noted Johnson, the Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust conducted an analysis of a sample of the official register. That study "reveals that only 50 percent of the names on the roll actually live at the addresses given and are thus entitled to vote in their constituency," Johnson said. Johnson calculates that the number of false votes for Mugabe last month was between 900,000 and 1.1 million. Without this cushion, Mugabe would have lost to Tsvangirai by at least 466,000 votes, Johnson estimates. "It seems certain," he wrote, "that despite the effects of terror and intimidation that he [Mugabe] did actually lose the election quite heavily."
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From The Guardian (UK), 2 April
No more Mr Nice Guy, Mugabe tells protesters
Robert Mugabe has said that he will no longer be "soft" on his critics after a coalition of churches, trade unions and civic groups called for mass protests next weekend against the rigging of last month's presidential election. In a speech that implicitly acknowledged the wave of terror already unleashed against his opponents since the ballot, Zimbabwe's president also vowed that there will be no new election and that the opposition will never govern. Mr Mugabe told a victory party in Zvimba, 25 miles south-west of Harare, that he will not tolerate attempts to make Zimbabwe ungovernable "by those bent on causing chaos". "Those who want to rebel and become lawless, we will deal with them firmly," he said. "They think we will continue to be soft. But that has gone. It's finished. We are now in a new phase and there will be a firm government."
Mr Mugabe also rejected calls from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and Nigeria's president, Olusegun Obasanjo, for a fresh election by saying that it was part of a British plot to depose him. "This talk about fresh elections, where will these be re-run?" he asked. "If they [Britain and other western governments] want, let them help the MDC in Britain and do their elections there. That's where they can win. They can never win elections in Zimbabwe... They will never, ever rule this country." The National Constitutional Assembly, an alliance of human rights activists, trade unions and religious groups, has called for street demonstrations on Saturday against the outcome of the disputed election. The MDC and its supporters say that a combination of tactics - such as striking hundreds of thousands of people from the voters' roll, engineering obstacles to voting and straightforward ballot box stuffing - delivered Mr Mugabe an illegitimate victory.
The NCA says that the protest will mark the start of a rolling campaign of civil disobedience in defiance of new security laws that carry long prison sentences, and even the death penalty, for what the government defines as acts of "treason". Previous challenges to Mr Mugabe by the NCA have been poorly attended. Only 40 people went to the last one, in November, and it was swiftly broken up by the police. Like wise, a three-day general strike by trade unions after the election was a flop. But there is evidence of growing anger at the torrent of state-sponsored violence unleashed across the country against Mr Mugabe's opponents and entire areas that voted against him in the presidential election. Last week, police used tear gas to break up a riot in a township near the southern city of Bulawayo in which residents trapped and stoned members of the ruling Zanu PF militia responsible for punishment beatings of Mr Mugabe's opponents and attacks on houses.
But the real suffering is for villagers in rural areas, where the army and ruling party militia have unleashed a wave of terror. Although opposition activists are the favoured targets for beatings and abductions, entire villages have been persecuted with thousands of people tortured and women raped. Tens of thousands of people have been forced from their homes by mobs of soldiers and militia intent on punishing Mr Mugabe's critics and demonstrating their power Zimbabwe's white farmers have also endured an upsurge in violence. One farmer has been murdered and many more driven from their property after Mr Mugabe announced his intention to seize hundreds more farms immediately.
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From The Star (SA), 1 April
Charge against Zim reporter 'is baseless'
Harare - The charge under Zimbabwe's new media laws against journalist Peta Thornycroft, who was arrested in the eastern highlands of Zimbabwe this week, cannot go to court and is without foundation, lawyers said on Monday. Thornycroft, a British-born widow who holds Zimbabwean citizenship, was arrested while going to Chimanimani to investigate reports of violence against opposition supporters in the wake of the March presidential elections. She was released on Sunday night after being charged with violating the new media laws. Her lawyers are requesting the state drop the charges. In terms of the new laws promulgated on March 15, all journalists working in the country have to be accredited with the state. While there is a grace period, the length of it is ambiguous. A section of the legislation states that journalists who were working in the country prior to the new law have a three-month period before accreditation with government is required. But another section states that journalists may continue working up to December 31 after which they must have government accreditation, lawyer Tapiwanashe Kujinga said. "It is a very vague act and a very dangerous piece of legislation in that whatever interpretation is put on some sections it can go either way." In either case, as it is only two weeks after the Act came into effect, Thornycroft cannot be in violation of it.
Thornycroft, who also holds a South African residence permit, is a correspondent for the British Daily Telegraph and two South African newspapers, the Mail and Guardian and Business Day. On the day of her arrest in Chimanimani she was investigating reports that the houses of MDC supporters who acted as polling agents in the recent presidential election had been burned down and that they had been threatened with death if they did not leave the area. The MDC has accused Zanu PF militias of engaging in violent attacks of retribution against its supporters for opposing President Robert Mugabe in the March 9 to 11 presidential election. The MDC last week said the militias had destroyed the homes of at least six of its polling agents in the central district of Gokwe during and after the election. "MDC polling agents are living in fear following threats on their lives by Zanu PF militia and war veterans. Many of the polling agents are no longer sleeping at their homes at night," the MDC said.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 2 April
How I found ugly truth of Mugabe's police state
The Telegraph correspondent in Zimbabwe, Peta Thornycroft, tells of her four-day prison ordeal
When six men - one wearing fake Ray-Ban sunglasses - walked up to my table in the Msasa Cafe among the Chimanimani mountains, I knew that this was it. Since returning to Zimbabwe last August to replace David Blair, who had been refused a renewal of his work permit to report for The Telegraph, the small corps of foreign correspondents believed that one or more of us would be nabbed at some time. Six of us had already been called terrorists by the state's press. But with the presidential election over, and among the extraordinary beauty of the Chimanimani mountains, it was the last thing on my mind. I was enjoying a cup of tea in the cafe, waiting to meet a contact. The men surrounded my table and insisted I go with them. I asked for their identification. Two of them showed me cards from the Zimbabwe Republic Police. I paid my bill and, accompanied by two of the group, got into my car and drove to the police station.
I made a phone call to a friend in Harare, who is an old hand at being arrested. I asked him to make three calls: to Beatrice Mtetwa, a solicitor in Harare, to The Telegraph and to my host in Chimanimani, Lord Plunkett. Then the questions began. I told them I was a journalist working for a British newspaper. But, given that the Zimbabwean government hates both the independent press and all things British, it was a dangerous admission. The police said they had to check my bona fides. I produced my metal identification card, which all Zimbabweans are obliged to carry since the Public Order and Security Act was rammed through parliament in February. The wait began - more questions, more chit-chat, and then my mobile phone rang. It was David Blair at The Telegraph in London. He had bad news. Lawyers had discovered that I was not, as I believed, in the custody of the police, but of the feared Central Intelligence Organisation.
Suddenly it was no longer a case of mistaken identify, or over-zealousness, that could be fixed with a little common sense. Robin Plunkett and his wife Jennifer arrived. A long-standing champion of majority rule in Zimbabwe, he has considerable standing in the community and with the police, but even he got no joy. I heard him being told that I was a "very rude woman". They knew, however, that he was watching what happened to me. He was allowed a few words with me. The Plunketts came back with a basket of food, and among it was a glass jar filled with one of the strongest Scotches ever poured. Lord Plunkett told the CIO: "The last time I took food to people in jail was when Robert Mugabe and Leopold Takawira [an early nationalist] were arrested." Eventually, the CIO decided to hand me over to the police. I was told I was charged under the draconian POSA legislation. Under this law, journalists can be jailed for a year for criticising the president, his cabinet or the security forces, or writing anything deemed false or economically harmful.
I was exhausted and longing for bed. They removed anything that could possibly have been used to harm myself. An inventory was taken of my possessions and I was led up the hill behind the police station. I saw that the night sky was clearer than any I had seen in years. The Southern Cross was bright and reassuring, and the distant mountains were just visible; so beautiful. The cell was not. It was bare, with three smelly blankets and a hole in the ground in the corner for a lavatory: the inevitable smell of urine, the slam of the door, and there I was - barefoot, braless and bloody cold. As dawn broke, I could see the distant mountains through an eight-inch square of mesh in the rusty old door. The day staff arrived. I was taken to sit in the duty officers' room.
A Sergeant Marimuse - with the ubiquitous mock Ray-Bans - asked a series of fatuous questions as he went through my notebook and list of contacts. The morning stretched into the afternoon. Eventually, I was handed over to four policeman from provincial headquarters who drove me to Mutare, the regional capital. There, the police allowed me to see my cousins and eat some fruit. They then took me to another cell - with fewer blankets, no view and an even stronger smell of urine. The days turned into nights, and along the way a detective managed to write out a charge sheet accusing me of working without accreditation under a media law that was promulgated a week after last month's presidential election. Late on Sunday, at an urgent hearing in the Harare High Court, it was ruled that the section under which I was charged was unconstitutional, and the police were ordered to release me. They were in no hurry. The provincial commander refused to sign my release papers. But my solicitor finally found an officer who would, and I was freed into a balmy night in the shabby town close to where I grew up.
Piecing it together, my arrest was not connected with being a journalist. The paranoid intelligence community in Chimanimani saw an unknown white woman driving with a black passenger in a South African-registered car, so some part-time "revolutionary" believed that I was a security risk. For them, it was a bonus that I was working for a British newspaper. I learned during snatches of overheard conversation that the following is true in the eyes of the "freedom fighters" in Chimanimani: Tony Blair has the British navy patrolling off the Mozambique coast, ready to airlift in troops to recolonise Zimbabwe. Close your eyes to the mountains and endless sky, and Chimanimani is an ugly little town, like so many in Zimbabwe, where there is no democracy, where the opposition voice has been stilled or forced underground, where giving a lift to a man with some connection to the opposition can land one in prison for five nights and four days. The police have just phoned. I must present myself at Mutare magistrate's court today at 8.30am.
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From The Independent (UK), 3 April
Zimbabwe crisis talks open today helped by South Africa and Nigeria
Negotiations between Zimbabwe's rival political parties - brokered by South Africa and Nigeria to end the crisis in the country - are underway. A top South African official is due in Harare today to get talks going. The leader of the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Morgan Tsvangirai, told The Independent yesterday that his party had agreed to meet with Zanu PF as part of plans by the Commonwealth "troika" of the South African President, Thabo Mbeki; Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo, and the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, to bring the two sides together. But he warned that tough remarks made by President Robert Mugabe at the weekend, castigating Britain and the MDC, had already put the talks in jeopardy, and urged South Africa and Nigeria to secure a public commitment to the talks from Mr Mugabe.
Mr Tsvangirai said: "If there is no commitment from us as leaders then we might as well not start the talks." He said his party's main agenda for the talks would be a re-run of last month's presidential election. "The critical question is restoration of legitimacy to government and we have to go back to the people," he said. He again rejected the idea of joining a government of national unity with Mr Mugabe. He said that if Mr Mugabe did not want an immediate re-run of the elections, he should allow an international commission of inquiry to investigate the entire electoral process. Mr Mbeki's envoy is the secretary general of the African National Congress, Kgalema Motlanthe, while Mr Obasanjo's is an academic and diplomat, Adebayo Adedeji. The MDC delegation looks set to be led by its secretary general, Welshman Ncube. Mr Ncube is, with Mr Tsvangirai, facing treason charges for allegedly plotting to kill Mr Mugabe. Zanu PF's team seems likely to be led by its chairman and home affairs minister, John Nkomo.
The closed talks between Zanu-PF and the MDC will exclude both leaders since the animosity between them appears to be a stumbling block. Mr Tsvangirai refused to be drawn on a date for the start of the talks, which have become crucial as violence increases after a presidential poll widely condemned as illegitimate. The Human Rights Forum, an alliance of civic, church and rights groups, said yesterday that 16 people died in political violence in the first half of March. Of those killed, 12 were opposition supporters, five of them MDC polling agents. One was a Zanu PF militant and three were of unknown affiliation.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 3 April
Telegraph reporter charges dropped
Peta Thornycroft, the Zimbabwe correspondent of The Telegraph, said yesterday she would sue the police for wrongful arrest and imprisonment after charges against her were dropped. After a remarkable combination of official bungling and paranoia which saw her held for five days before her release on Sunday evening, Ms Thornycroft was cleared of every charge. "There never was any merit in any of the accusations," she said. "Not only was I wrongfully arrested but the entire future of their media law is now at stake." Mr Justice Mohammed Adam, the High Court judge who heard the case on Sunday, agreed with Thornycroft's lawyers that nothing in the Access to Information Act prevented her from working without the accreditation required by Clause 83. This loophole effectively renders the whole law toothless. Ms Thornycroft had been ordered to attend a magistrate's court hearing in Mutare, 200 miles east of Harare, at 8.30 yesterday morning.
When she appeared she was told that government lawyers had been instructed to drop the case. No hearing took place. Ms Thornycroft, 57, also announced that she would begin defamation proceedings against the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation. While she was in custody, its website accused her of being "in the forefront of destroying [her] own country using the pen" and called her a "former Rhodesian journalist who could not accept black rule at independence". Ms Thornycroft, who said she was "infuriated" by this abuse, will return to Harare today and resume writing for The Telegraph. Her release coincided with the arrival in Harare of envoys representing President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria. Both leaders want to see direct talks between the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and the ruling Zanu PF party, with the goal of forming a government of national unity. But the MDC ruled out direct talks for the time being and said that an negotiations would have to be aimed at running the election under international supervision.
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From The Daily News, 2 April
1 000 Flee Zanu PF Terror in Zaka, Gutu
AT least 1 000 people have been displaced in Zaka and Gutu districts alone because of post-election violence in Masvingo province three weeks after the presidential election. Following President Mugabe's controversial election victory, scores of Zanu PF youths have embarked on a witch-hunt against suspected MDC supporters. Mushagashe training centre, about 20 kilometres north of Masvingo town, has been turned into a Zanu PF training camp, where scores of youths are being churned out every week. Retired army captain Francis Zimuto, also known as Black Jesus, is leading the training exercise. The militia have unleashed a reign of terror in Zaka and more than 500 teachers and MDC activists including polling agents, have so far fled the district fearing for their lives.
Shaky Matake, the MDC provincial vice-chairman in Masvingo province, said the situation remained tense in parts of rural Masvingo. "So far the number of people affected by the post-election violence runs into thousands, including our polling agents in the recent election," he said. "Intimidation and harassment of our supporters has become the order of the day in Zaka and Gutu districts. We have a number of people who fled their homes soon after Mugabe's victory and the situation is getting serious." Some teachers at Chimedza and Chitonhora schools in Zaka have been given orders not to return to their schools next term.
In Gutu North, which is represented by Vice-President Simon Muzenda, political violence has seen known MDC supporters fleeing Wachi village for the urban areas. In Gutu South, some people are reportedly sleeping in the bush because Zanu PF militants continue to raid the villages at night and beat up people. The youths are camped at Nerupiri Secondary School. One of the victims, Opus Ruocha of Gutu South, said he fled his home after receiving death threats from war veterans and members of the youth brigade. Ruocha, who is the MDC organising secretary for Gutu South, said: "I am no longer staying at my home. Zanu PF supporters have compiled a list of people they have targeted for killing and I am one of them. Teachers suspected of being MDC activists have been given notices to leave their schools. We are saying if you did not rig this election, why are you beating us up?" story-bodySome of the affected schools in Gutu South include Masvingise, Mundondo and Nerupiri.
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Liberators' Platform (ZLP) yesterday said it was failing to cope with the number of people who have have fled from their home areas in Masvingo. ZLP regional chairman, Noah Mutisi, said his organisation was catering for thousands of people displaced by political violence. "We help victims of political violence. We do not support any political party hence both Zanu PF and MDC supporters can benefit. The workload has become heavy, but we will try our level best to assist those affected," he said.
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From The Business Recorder (Australia), 3 April
Australia to discuss Zimbabwe with New Zealand, Canada
Canberra - Australian Prime Minister John Howard said on Tuesday he will use his trip to London next week for the funeral of the Queen Mother to discuss Zimbabwe with the leaders of Canada, New Zealand and the Commonwealth. Howard said he believed pressure would grow on organisers of the Commonwealth Games to ban Zimbabwe from the event in Manchester in July but stressed individual countries could not stop the troubled African nation from taking part. Australia has said it would keep open the option of imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe but ruled out immediate unilateral action following the re-election last month of President Robert Mugabe and the suspension of Zimbabwe from the 54-nation Commonwealth. The grouping of mostly former British colonies last month suspended Zimbabwe from its councils for a year over Mugabe's controversial electoral win but stopped short of the sort of sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States.
Howard said he had already spoken to New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and hoped that if Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien also attended the royal funeral the three nations could discuss possible future Commonwealth action on Zimbabwe. "(Clark and I) agreed to get together in London and if Jean Chretien, the Canadian prime minister is there, which I think is very likely, we'll probably have a meeting the three of us, perhaps with the Commonwealth secretary-general to talk further about Zimbabwe," Howard told Melbourne radio. Clark wants Zimbabwe excluded from the Commonwealth Games but Canada has dismissed that call. Howard said it was a decision which could only be made by the Commonwealth Games Federation. "We cannot as governments, not in our kind of free society, stop people from coming. But I wouldn't be surprised if pressure for that grows," Howard said. The funeral of the Queen Mother, to be held Tuesday, April 9 in London, is expected to draw world leaders and diplomats. Howard was part of a three-nation Commonwealth committee which met in London last month to suspend Zimbabwe. Donors, including the IMF and the World Bank, have already cut off financial aid to Zimbabwe in protest at the government's political and economic policies that include the seizure of white-owned lands as well as Mugabe's disputed election victory last month.
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Comment from The Daily News, 2 April
Mbeki Should Do to Mugabe What Vorster Did to Ian Smith
Last Monday, 26 March, 15 African heads of state were meeting in Nigeria to endorse a draft document committing their countries to uphold the principles of democracy and good governance. In particular, they are pledging themselves to:
The rule of law.
The strict separation of powers between the Judiciary, the Legislature and the Executive;
An active and independent civil society to which the government will be accountable;
Transparent government and the eradication of corruption;
A free and independent Press; and
Respect for human rights.
All this they do in an effort to convince the wealthy donor countries of the West to approve and release vast new development aid for the ambitious New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad). The great question, however, is: Will this declaration of commitment be even remotely followed through? How many of these 15 countries have just endorsed the most flagrant disregard, by Robert Mugabe's government in Zimbabwe, of all of the above six lofty principles?
The sorry truth is that these African leaders, led by South Africa's Thabo Mbeki and Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo, are committed to these fine principles, but only if it will not entail, for instance, turning their backs on the so-called African Solidarity. What silly nonsense is this? Of course, Mbeki and Obasanjo try to brush aside this ugly truth by arguing, amazingly, that the gross excesses committed by Mugabe to ensure his re-election are acceptable by "African standards". This is not only astonishing; it also is hypocrisy at its worst considering that we have Mbeki and his henchmen whining on about Western double standards, arguing, or at least implying, that the application of Western standards of civilisation is "inappropriate" to developing countries in Africa!
Since when? Are Mugabe's policies any less reprehensible than apartheid? What reasonable person would argue that opposition to apartheid was inappropriate? Was apartheid not practiced in a developing African country? These leaders are making themselves the laughing stock of the world. Unfortunately, the whole of Africa becomes a laughing stock along with them.
This, of course, is unfair; the whole continent should not be brought into disrepute because of the hypocrisy of its leaders. This is an instance, perhaps, of what South African Vice-President Jacob Zuma likes to call "collective punishment", a practice that he correctly holds to be iniquitous. Zimbabweans are well acquainted with the iniquity of collective punishment; a few people in a constituency or village vote for the "wrong" political party and the whole country is punished. The doctrine of collective punishment is not one from which the President of Zimbabwe or his henchmen have shied away from. In fact, they energetically advocate it!
Aside from the wholesale manufacture of votes, the threat and followed by actual use of collective punishment was the mainspring of Zanu PF's election campaign. Zuma feels greatly aggrieved that South Africa is being tarred with the same brush as the renegade government in Zimbabwe (I'm glad he concedes that it is renegade) and that South Africa and the rest of the continent are being subjected to collective punishment for Zimbabwe's delinquency. Fair enough, one may say - or is it? If South Africa had unreservedly and unambiguously condemned the gross excesses of the Mugabe government, it would be fair to argue that he has a point. However, by nonsensically holding that while the election process in Zimbabwe was not free and fair, it was nevertheless "legitimate" South Africa makes itself an accessory to the barbarous practices of the Zimbabwean government and is, therefore, well deserving of the censure of the civilised world.
Finally, Mbeki and Zuma feel it is grossly unfair that the rest of the world is looking to South Africa to find a remedy to the Zimbabwean problem, and perhaps it is unfair. It is, though, faulty in the extreme to take this a step further, as Mbeki and Zuma seem to, and suggest that because it is unfair, South Africa, the regional superpower, should not be required to shoulder the responsibility of finding and imposing a just solution. South Africa is in the unique position of being the only country that can put effective pressure on Zimbabwe. In the 1970s, it was only pressure from John Vorster's government that finally brought down the rogue regime in Rhodesia, but only after the world had placed an economic embargo on South Africa to force her into line. Let us hope such extreme measures will not be needed to get the ANC to act.
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From The Independent (UK), 4 April
Opposition in 'peace talks' with Zanu PF
Harare - Zimbabwe's opposition party said yesterday that it had begun talks with President Robert Mugabe's party over last month's disputed presidential election but the divisions run so deep that progress would be difficult. Eddie Cross, the economic affairs secretary for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said the talks with Zanu PF - chaired by the South African President, Thabo Mbeki, and the Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo - had got off to a slow start in Vumba, about 175 miles north-east of Harare. Mr Cross said: "I don't think you will hear anything for some days. The gulf between the two parties is so wide that it will take some days to agree on what they are going to talk about." Mr Cross said that there was unlikely to be progress unless Mr Mbeki and Mr Obasanjo brought pressure to bear on both sides. Mr Cross said the MDC secretary general, Welshman Ncube, was leading the opposition team, with the parliamentary speaker, Emmerson Mnangagwa, heading the representatives from Zanu PF. Earlier, there had been confusion over the status of the talks, with some MDC and Zanu PF officials saying they knew nothing about them. The negotiations were initiated by South Africa and Nigeria to stabilise the political situation in Zimbabwe. The two countries, which are pushing for a shared government, have led the efforts to launch a dialogue between Zimbabwe's bitterly divided parties.
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From The Times (UK), 4 April
Unity talks in Zimbabwe put in doubt
Talks between the Opposition and the Government in Zimbabwe were in question yesterday after President Mugabe’s Zanu PF party denied that the two sides had met. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said that the discussions, initiated by South Africa and Nigeria, had got off to a slow start, but Jonathan Moyo, the Information Minister, said that the talks would begin only after his party had held meetings with South African and Nigerian representatives. Earlier, the MDC said that Fanuel White, one of its polling agents, had died after being tortured by Zanu PF supporters.
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From The Daily News, 4 April
Meeting delayed
Confusion surrounded the talks between Zanu PF and the opposition MDC yesterday with the meeting being delayed due to the late arrival of the Nigerian mission led by prominent West African diplomat, Adebayo Adedeji. However, as these developments aimed at finding a solution to Zimbabwe’s deepening political impasse were taking place, President Mugabe took off yesterday for a meeting in Lusaka aimed at finding a Reuters reported last night that the MDC’s economic affairs secretary, Eddie Cross, had told them the talks had gotten off to a slow start. "The talks have started . . . I don’t think you will hear anything for some days. They are discussing what to talk about," said Cross. "The gulf between the two parties is so wide that it will take some days to agree on what they are going to talk about. Unless Mbeki and Obasanjo bring pressure to bear, there will not be much progress." The talks had been initiated by South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki and his colleague, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, who were part of the troika which recommended Zimbabwe’s suspension from the Commonwealth last month after Mugabe’s disputed victory. The period running up to the crucial poll was marred by State-sponsored violence that saw more than 100 people being killed in cold blood. MDC spokesman, Learnmore Jongwe, said the talks were definitely set for yesterday.
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From The Financial Gazette, 4 April
Mugabe exit to top talks
Planned talks between the ruling Zanu PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) will ultimately pave the way for President Robert Mugabe’s exit from power before the end of his controversial new six-year term. The two parties though still differ greatly on the modalities and the time frame for Mugabe’s premature departure, it was established this week. Among the governing party’s bargaining chips that it intends to put on the table at the talks which were due to start late yesterday is the shortening of Mugabe’s new term by at least three years, highly placed sources said. Zanu PF wants to amend the constitution to allow the life of parliament, whose tenure is currently five years, to run concurrently with that of the presidency which is six years. What that means is that Mugabe’s current six-year term, expected to end in 2008, would be halved and end in 2005 when the term of the present parliament expires. The proposal, if accepted by the MDC, would restore legitimacy to Mugabe’s government that has been widely condemned by Zimbabweans and the international community as having stolen last month’s bitterly contested presidential ballot.
The governing party is also proposing that the transitional period be used to form an independent electoral supervisory commission and to make other electoral amendments acceptable to the opposition. Zimbabwe’s current electoral supervisory bodies have been blamed for favouring Zanu PF and for employing numerous tricks that allowed Zanu PF to steal the vote for Mugabe. Ruling party insiders this week said they were in favour of breaking the political impasse caused by the disputed March 9-11 presidential poll by amending some sections of the constitution. But opposition sources countered by saying that the MDC would stick to its demands for a fresh presidential election supervised by the United Nations and nothing else.
Official sources said Zanu PF’s proposals dovetailed with Mugabe’s overall plan to hand over power to his favoured man, Emmerson Mnangagwa, the head of the party’s team to the talks. Mugabe’s choice of Mnangagwa to head the crucial talks with the MDC, over more senior party leaders, was also seen as an annointment of the Speaker of Parliament as his eventual successor in Zanu PF and government, the sources said. Other members of the Zanu PF team to the talks include Frederick Shava, Zanu PF’s director of administration who is Mnangagwa’s right-hand man. Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s former intelligence boss, is also being tipped for a vice president’s post in a new Cabinet the Zanu PF leader might announce before the end of the month.
Some of the proposals being put forward by Zanu PF include amendments contained in the draft constitution rejected by the majority of Zimbabweans in a referendum in February 2000. "As our bargaining gesture, we will accommodate proposals aimed at amending the constitution because the sticking problems which are arising were contained in the draft constitution which the MDC campaigned against," a member of Zanu PF’s supreme Politburo told the Financial Gazette. As part of its strategy to bring the MDC on board, Zanu PF would in time drop treason charges levelled against MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and his secretary-general Welshman Ncube if the talks made headway, the sources said. Mugabe allies such as South Africa’s ruling African National Congress have urged him to drop the treason charges against the MDC leaders as the first step towards reconciling Zimbabweans and ending the current economic and political crisis.
Analysts though say the talks, due to open in Harare last night and possibly move out of the capital later, could bog down on the modalities of Mugabe’s departure. This is because the MDC insists that it is only willing to participate in a transitional government that works towards the staging of a new ballot before the end of the year, but Zanu PF is opposed to this suggestion. However, should the MDC accept Zanu PF’s proposals, it is hoped in government circles that Zimbabwe would be able to shed its image of a pariah state and once again attract badly needed aid and investment. The southern African country, reeling from a devastating drought and mounting poverty, needs about US$45 million to avert mass starvation before the next harvest in March next year.
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From The Financial Gazette, 4 April
Obasanjo initiated Zanu PF, MDC talks
Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo pressured President Robert Mugabe into talking with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to resolve Zimbabwe’s crisis which threatens to engulf southern Africa, it was learnt yesterday. Diplomatic sources said it was Obasanjo who told Mugabe in January, well before the staging of the discredited March 9-11 presidential vote, that the outcome of that poll was not important but that Mugabe had to engage the MDC to ensure that Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis is resolved. Obasanjo presented the proposal for negotiations to both Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai at separate meetings held in Harare towards the end of January. Previously Mugabe had vowed he would never talk to Tsvangirai who he says is a puppet of the West.
"These talks are an Obasanjo initiative. South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki is in it really to play a supportive role because Mugabe appeared like he was never prepared to listen to Mbeki," one source close to the negotiations told the Financial Gazette. Obasanjo’s office in Abuja and Nigeria’s high commissioner in Harare could not be reached to confirm the Nigerian leader’s role in bringing together Zimbabwe’s bitterly divided parties. Mbeki’s spokesman Bheki Khumalo could also not be reached for comment. When Obasanjo was returning to Harare in March to push for negotiations between Zanu PF and the MDC, he telephoned Mbeki to inform him about this. At that point, according to the sources, Mbeki - who all along had pushed through his much criticized quiet diplomacy for a government of national unity in Zimbabwe - then asked if he could be involved in the talks about talks between Mugabe and Tsvangirai. Obasanjo then contacted both the MDC and Zanu PF who expressed no objection to Mbeki being part of the initiative to break Zimbabwe’s political impasse.
According to the sources Obasanjo, now accompanied by Mbeki, told Mugabe in Harare on March 18 that continued African protection could only be guaranteed if he genuinely engaged the opposition. The meeting was held as international pressure mounted against Mugabe’s re-election in what most of the world has condemned as a fraudulent ballot. The two African leaders also met Tsvangirai separately on the same day to urge him to agree to talks with the government. The sources said although Mbeki wields undoubted influence over Zimbabwe because of Pretoria’s economic clout, he was unable to push his agenda because of his obsession with a government of national unity, which both the MDC and Zanu PF have rejected. Mugabe also appeared unwilling to be told what to do by the younger Mbeki, they said. The MDC has made clear it is only interested in talks if they will lead to a transitional government whose mandate is to hold a fresh presidential election under the watchful eye of the United Nations or the Commonwealth.
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From The Star (SA), 3 April
Tales of torture as Zim death toll rises
Harare - Zimbabwe's main opposition party said on Wednesday that one of its officials died after torture, in a report that would take the death toll to at least 10 since last month's disputed presidential election. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said that polling agent Fanuel White had succumbed to injuries suffered when he was tortured and assaulted by alleged ruling Zanu PF supporters. White was taken by a security guard at his workplace, an agricultural parastatal in the north-eastern Mushumbi Pools, and handed over to Zanu PF militias who tortured him before releasing him. White died at a Harare clinic last Thursday, the MDC said in a statement. The latest reported death brings to 43 the number of fatalities in political violence since the beginning of the year. The MDC has refused to recognise the outcome of the March 9-11 polls won by President Robert Mugabe, saying the vote was massively rigged and thousands of its supporters suffered intimidation, torture, assault or death. The party claims that the violence against its members and supporters has not ceased even after the polling, but has even worsened in the form of retribution against people known or suspected to support the opposition. "We are concerned about the violence. The violence is worse than it was before elections," said MDC secretary for economic affairs Eddie Cross.
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From SABC News, 4 April
US to deliver food aid for hungry Zimbabweans
The United States government says it is poised to deliver the first consignment of a 34 430 tonne contribution of maize meal to help feed thousands of Zimbabweans facing severe food shortages. "The United States is providing 8 470 metric tons of fortified maize meal and the associated transport and handling costs," the US embassy in Harare says in a statement. "The food is now on its way to Zimbabwe from Tanzania." The embassy says the first consignment of the maize, part of the US contribution to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) emergency project for Zimbabwe will be de livered in Bindura, 88km northeast of Harare tomorrow. "Current US government plans also provide for an additional $7 million worth of assistance for the UN food programme over the coming months. This assistance will provide for an additional 11 650 tonnes of food, including transport and handling costs," the statement adds. The US is also finalising an agreement with aid agency World Vision International to provide 14 310 tonnes of maize meal and other food commodities for some 75 000 people in Zimbabwe's Matabeleland and Midlands provinces in the coming year. "The total US contribution is expected to be 34 430 tonnes. This amount will meet the needs of approximately 170 000 vulnerable people in rural Zimbabwe during the next 12 months," the embassy says.
Earlier a southern African food security unit said regional countries including Zimbabwe face widespread hunger as food imports were arriving too slowly in areas hit by drought. The Southern African Development Community's (SADC) Early Warning Unit said in its latest quarterly update that only 36% of planned regional imports had been received, exacerbating already dwindling food supplies in land-locked Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Slow deliveries were mostly due to poor infrastructure, derailments of freight trains and congestion of routes arising from competing demands on freight services from here (South Africa). Zimbabwe is normally self sufficient in food but drought and the invasions of white-owned farms since February 2000 by militants loyal to veteran President Robert Mugabe have slashed maize output. With output from the 2001/02 crop season seen at 1 million tonnes of maize at best, against domestic demand of 1,8 million tonnes, industry officials says imports of up to 600 000 tonnes of the staple grain are needed. Last week the WFP said it urgently needed $69 million for 145 866 tonnes of food to ward off an imminent break in food supplies for people in Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
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From The Times (UK), 5 April
Mediators see Harare politicians
Harare - The first moves toward a possible settlement of Zimbabwe’s political crisis began yesterday when Nigerian and South African mediators held preliminary, separate consultations with the ruling Zanu PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). State radio said Adebayo Adedeji, a Nigerian diplomat, and Kgalema Motlanthe, secretary-general of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress, discussed a venue and agenda for substantive talks. It said that a full meeting with both parties present could begin only when Patrick Chinamasa, the Justice Minister, returned from a business trip to Switzerland. The bulletin gave no more details, other than naming the surprisingly junior ruling party delegation that met the mediators. It said that it was led by the Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo, who holds the post of deputy secretary in President Mugabe’s politburo. He was accompanied by two former Cabinet ministers, one dismissed for corruption in 1989 and the other dropped for being ineffective. The MDC was led by Welshman Ncube, its secretary-general. He is also a leading advocate and Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Zimbabwe.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 5 April
Mugabe holds up unity talks
Talks between the ruling Zanu PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) got off to a slow start yesterday as South African and Nigerian facilitators conducted exploratory discussions with the two parties. Expectations are low because the two sides are worlds apart on issues of democracy and the rule of law. But both are under the whip of South African President Thabo Mbeki and his Nigerian counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo who want an agreement to promote their Nepad African recovery project. The MDC said yesterday it will settle for nothing less than a return to legitimacy. Zanu PF, whose delegation yesterday included Information minister Jonathan Moyo, Frederick Shava and Witness Mangwende, is thought to be waiting for instructions from President Mugabe who will convene a central committee meeting today. Mugabe is known to be hostile to an accommodation with the MDC who he has branded British puppets but would probably not be opposed to a process that might absorb and neutralise the party.
Mbeki's chief negotiator is the ruling ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe while Obasanjo's emissary is ex-diplomat, Professor Adebayo Adedeji. The two political umpires are expected to guide Zimbabwe's own version of the Codesa talks which led to South Africa's democratic dispensation. The talks were initiated by Mbeki and Obasanjo when they visited Harare on March 18. The final Zanu PF team, yet to be approved by the politburo, is likely to be led by party chairman John Nkomo while the MDC group is headed by secretary-general Welshman Ncube. Zanu PF said yesterday Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa would join their team as soon as he returned from Geneva. Ncube yesterday confirmed that his team had met the South African and Nigerian intermediaries. "We met them this morning," Ncube said. "They said they are here to talk to both the MDC and Zanu PF and they will get back to us."
Motlanthe yesterday told the Zimbabwe Independent: "We have agreed that we will not speak to the media until there is something to report, that is a communique signed by both parties." The two parties are expected to appoint teams of five members each. Yesterday's first round of talks were designed to establish an agenda and venue for substantive negotiations. Despite the talks, state broadcaster ZBC continued yesterday to accuse the MDC of giving the country bad publicity. It repeated Mugabe's declaration that there will be no re-run of the presidential poll. Sources said the facilitators from the continent's powerhouses would be in the country until Sunday. They were expected to continue convening meetings after yesterday's initial contacts. Asked what the MDC's demands in the talks were, Ncube said: "For us the only thing we want is a legitimate government. I can't negotiate through the press but the principal issue is how do we get a legitimate government. We are taking part in the hope that there will be a way forward."
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From News24 (SA), 4 April
Mediators battle to touch sides
Harare - Nigerian and South African mediators are trying to hammer out a proposal to convince the opposition and President Robert Mugabe's ruling party to meet to end a stalemate over last month's disputed presidential election. Officials from both parties said they were waiting to hear the mediators' proposals before deciding whether to take part. Political violence in Zimbabwe has continued in the wake of the controversial March 9-11 presidential election that the government said Mugabe won. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change and several observer teams said the vote was marred by intimidation and vote-rigging. Since the poll, international pressure has mounted for Mugabe and the MDC to form a coalition government.
Kgalema Motlanthe, secretary-general of South Africa's ruling African National Congress, and senior Nigerian diplomat Adebayo Adedeji were meeting with aides on Thursday at a Harare hotel to try to establish the groundwork for possible talks. Zimbabwe information minister Jonathan Moyo, who is also a ruling Zanu PF party spokesman, said proposed talks would begin only after "appropriate consultations" were held with the mediators. Welshman Ncube, MDC secretary-general, said the opposition party was awaiting proposals from the mediators on a possible agenda. "We have simply agreed to listen to what is on offer," he said. The MDC has laid down conditions for holding talks, including demands for a rerun of the presidential election under United Nations or Commonwealth supervision, an end to political violence and measures to end economic chaos. They were among 10 "confidence-building measures that must be in place" if talks were to go ahead, Ncube said.
Opposition officials have said privately the party might support a "transitional arrangement" to run the country until a new election is held within six months or a year. That was expected to be the sticking point Mugabe would not accept. Ruling party leaders have made it clear that after any low-level preliminary talks, Mugabe would be unwilling meet with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai whom he has branded a puppet of the West and the nation's 60 000 whites. Mugabe (78) has led Zimbabwe since independence in 1980. He vowed on Sunday to crush any civil uprising against his rule and dismissed calls for new elections. Since the beginning of the year, political violence has claimed 48 lives, 31 of them opposition supporters, according to local human rights groups. Hundreds more people have been subjected to assaults, death threats, torture and evictions from their homes, mostly at the hands of ruling-party militants since the poll. The country is also facing its worst economic crisis since independence in 1980.
South African former president Nelson Mandela said in a radio interview on Thursday that he had been approached, before Zimbabwe's election, by a ruling party Cabinet minister in Zimbabwe who wanted him to push Mugabe to resign. Mandela, who did not name the minister, said he considered the request inappropriate and refused. Zimbabwe's independent Financial Gazette newspaper reported on Thursday that ruling-party insiders proposed a compromise to prepare the way for Mugabe's early retirement. Mugabe's new six-year term could be curtailed to end after three years in 2005 when parliament's term expires and fresh joint elections could be held with an independent election commission replacing the state-appointed commission, said the paper. Quoting unidentified insiders, the paper said the government would offer to drop treason charges against Tsvangirai and Ncube as a gesture of good faith. The opposition leaders have denied the charges that they were involved in an alleged plot to assassinate Mugabe.
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From The Star (SA), 4 April
Zim rights groups to defy protest ban
Harare - Zimbabwean civic groups vowed on Thursday to go ahead with a planned weekend rally for a new constitution despite a police ban on the nationwide protest. State radio reported on Wednesday that police had banned the planned demonstrations, saying the political situation in the troubled southern African country was not conducive to protests. On Thursday the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), a coalition of student and church groups, political parties and human rights organisations, said its right to hold protests was enshrined in Zimbabwe's present supreme law which guarantees freedom of expression and association. "We are going ahead with the planned march, which is guaranteed under section 21 of the constitution, although we know that the police will probably try to stop us," NCA spokesperson Maxwell Saungweme. He said the civic groups would seek legal recourse if police tried to prevent the march from going ahead.
In a separate statement, the NCA said the reasons given by the police for the ban, including an accusation that the civic organisation wanted to "impose its constitution on the government", were "grossly unreasonable". "It is neither the duty nor responsibility of the police to advise on the appropriateness of a cause for a demonstration," the NCA said. In February, dozens of riot police armed with batons and guns broke up an NCA-organised protest against the government's refusal to adopt a new national constitution. The NCA says deeply rooted flaws in the current constitution - which critics say Mugabe has repeatedly used in the past to entrench his rule - make it impossible to hold free and fair elections in Zimbabwe. The police, echoing the government's sentiments, has accused the NCA of pursuing a political agenda and of being an extension of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has rejected the validity of his defeat by Mugabe at last month's presidential poll.
"That (police charge) is a deliberate misinterpretation of the NCA, which is just pursuing the goals of a new constitution after widespread consultations from all stakeholders," Saungweme said on Thursday. In 2000 the NCA was instrumental in the rejection by the majority of Zimbabweans of a proposed new constitution crafted by a government-appointed commission which critics said left Mugabe's overwhelming presidential powers intact. Under a harsh Public Order and Security Bill passed by Mugabe's government last month, Zimbabweans need police permission to organise public protests and gatherings. Penalties for illegal protests range from fines to a year in prison.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 5 April
344 NCA activists arrested
In what is seen as a bid to thwart the National Constitutional Assembly's demonstration tomorrow the police yesterday arrested 344 women from the organisation under the Public Order and Security Act. The women were conducting a workshop at the Young Women's Christian Association in Westwood, Kambuzuma, to map the way forward on gender issues. The women were bundled into police vehicles and taken to different police stations. Five hundred were in attendance but many escaped arrest. "When we got to the YWCA, women who had been arrested were being bundled into police vehicles and we understand they were being taken to various police stations," said Maxwell Saungweme, the NCA's information officer. The ZRP has vowed to ban the demonstration saying the political situation in the country was not conducive to mass protests. Zimbabweans are now required to seek police clearance before embarking on any protest under the new Act. The Act is being used to harass civil society. Those who breach POSA face penalties ranging from imprisonment for up to a year to huge fines. Even Book Cafe at the Fife Ave shops has been told it may no longer hold political discussions.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 5 April
Mugabe's mobs in new terror campaign
Mobs loyal to President Robert Mugabe have launched a wave of attacks, forcing tens of thousands of Zimbabweans to flee their homes since the widely-condemned election last month. The renewed terror campaign, which compares with the worst violence before the poll, coincided with the opening of negotiations between senior figures in the ruling Zanu PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). South Africa and Nigeria have brokered the highly sensitive talks and Western diplomats forecast that the MDC will come under severe pressure to join a government of national unity that could strengthen Mr Mugabe's grip on power. Working from a network of 120 base camps spread across Zimbabwe, Zanu PF gangs have hunted down MDC supporters. In the three weeks since the election human rights groups have recorded 13 murders and hundreds of cases of torture, abduction, rape and assault. Most offences have been committed by the 30,000 members of the National Youth Service Force, a paramilitary outfit made up of unemployed teenagers. Anyone who worked as an MDC polling agent or campaigned for Morgan Tsvangirai, Mr Mugabe's defeated opponent, has been singled out. Many have been unable to return to their homes since the announcement of Mr Mugabe's victory, while the ranks of the displaced have been swelled by black farm workers. Thousands have lost their jobs and homes following the seizure of white-owned farms. A spokesman for the Zimbabwe Crisis Group, a coalition of civic organisations, estimated that 50,000 people had become refugees since the election. He appealed for international assistance for the victims. In Mashonaland East province alone the Commercial Farmers' Union said that 19 landowners had been "illegally evicted" and there had been 31 cases of looting since the election.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 5 April
Greater Harare airspace now no-fly zone
The government has since the first week of March closed all airstrips in and around Harare thereby limiting the use of small private aircraft on the pretext the planes pose a security risk to the capital. This is not the first time that government has placed restrictions on flying. In December Victoria Falls was declared a no-fly zone during Zanu PF's national conference. The restrictions in Harare were enforced, sources said, after it was rumoured that opposition Movement for Democratic Change president Morgan Tsvangirai was planning to leave the country using a light aircraft. Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe general manager Karikoga Kaseke this week confirmed the closure of the airstrips and the flying restrictions saying this was for security reasons. "I can confirm that this has been going on since the election as a security measure but I do not have any other details," said Kaseke.
A week prior to the election CAAZ and the Airforce of Zimbabwe issued a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) instructing the closure of all airstrips within a 25 nautical miles (46km) radius of Harare International Airport with the exception of Charles Prince Airport in Mt Hampden north-west of Harare. The NOTAM was supposed to be in force until a week after the election but security organs have ordered a renewal of the restriction, with the latest coming last Friday. Aviation sources said the authorities wanted to prevent all flying activity from any airstrip. Planes cannot even be flown into Charles Prince to operate from there in future, the sources said. The ban will affect farmers and business people.
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From BBC News, 6 April
Zimbabwe warns protesters
The authorities in Zimbabwe have warned people not to take part in anti-government protests planned for this weekend in the capital, Harare, and elsewhere in the country. Home Affairs Minister, John Nkomo, said the marches were illegal, and warned the opposition that those who took part would be prosecuted. But the civil rights organisation the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), who organised the protests, has vowed to go ahead despite the detention this week of hundreds of their supporters, many of them women and children. Earlier President Robert Mugabe ruled out another election, warning that he would not accept any challenges to his authority. "The national poll will be held six years hence and let this sink in to Britain and... MDC (Movement for Democratic Change)," he said in a speech to his ruling Zanu PF party.
A coalition of churches, trade unions and students groups had called for massive street protests following President Robert Mugabe's controversial re-election last month. The police have declared the protests illegal and 354 activists have been arrested and held for 24 hours, said Lovemore Madhuku, one of the protest's organisers. The arrests come as mediators from South Africa and Nigeria are in Zimbabwe, trying to reconcile Mr Mugabe's government with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. They hope to cool the political temperature, possibly with the aim of setting up a government of national unity. The NCA is an umbrella group set up to campaign for a new constitution - in particular a curb on the powers of the president.
"It is totally repressive. The police ban on our planned peaceful demonstrations is unlawful and unconstitutional. We are going ahead, even if they have to keep jailing people," said Mr Madhuku. The MDC insists that the election was rigged and its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai has said he is only prepared to discuss the date of a new poll, held under international supervision, not any proposals for a government of national unity. Meanwhile in the Zimbabwe countryside, the MDC says its members are still being victimised by triumphant Zanu PF supporters.
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From The Times (UK), 6 April
Harare police round up 350 women
Harare - About 350 women activists from a pro-democracy group, several of them with babies on their backs, were in custody yesterday after being arrested by Zimbabwean riot police for holding an "unlawful" meeting. Most of them were arrested on Thursday in a Young Women’s Christian Association hall in the Harare township of Kambuzuma as they gathered to plan for nationwide demonstrations today to demand a new democratic constitution. Police have banned the planned demonstration by the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), an alliance of church, civic and labour organisations, under the terms of draconian security laws passed in January. Also arrested were a smaller number of NCA workers who were distributing leaflets in the city centre yesterday, Lovemore Madhuku, the NCA chairman, said. Three NCA officials were also detained when they went to visit the arrested women, who are being held in nine police stations in Harare townships.
"This is a police state," Mr Madhuku said. "There are pregnant women in the cells, women who brought children with them and women who left their children at home." A police spokesman denied that there were any children with the women. However, the independent Daily News published a photograph of two toddlers in a police yard. Lawyers are seeking a court ruling to secure the release of the women. "What police intend to do is to keep them until after the demonstration," Mr Madhuku said. The latest police action is seen as evidence of the government’s rapid decline into dictatorship in less than a month since President Mugabe was declared the winner of presidential elections that most of the world has declared illegitimate. "They think we will continue to be soft. That’s gone, that’s finished," Mr Mugabe said at the weekend. The women were arrested under the Public Order and Security Act which the Government used as a near-blanket ban on the opposition Movement for Democratic Change’s political meetings during the election campaign. Police have also used the law to ban today’s scheduled demonstration. "I think there will be trouble," Mr Madhuku said. "But we will not obey unlawful orders, including unlawful orders by the President."
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From The Daily News, 5 April
Berserk soldiers beat up Gweru residents again
Gweru - Scores of Gweru residents were injured on Tuesday night after they were indiscriminately beaten up at several nightclubs and council-owned beerhalls by soldiers in the city. The residents said the latest raids were meant to cow them into boycotting the countrywide mass demonstrations organised by the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), tomorrow. The NCA, a coalition of several civic groups, tomorrow plans to launch its series of mass demonstrations to pressure the government to urgently review the constitution, which it has described as grossly defective. Several revellers at the council-owned beerhalls in Mkoba and Senga suburbs, fled when the soldiers moved into the high-density suburbs. The soldiers patrolled the city and high-density suburbs using two armoured vehicles. Timothy Mukahlera, the owner of one of the nightclubs, described the raid as "barbaric" and called on the government to stop the continued harassment of urban dwellers. During the run-up to last month’s presidential poll, the soldiers conducted similar raids at nightclubs owned by members of the MDC. Angry revellers at Chitukuko Hotel, owned by prominent Gweru businessman, Patrick Kombayi retaliated, overpowered and disarmed one of the soldiers. The firearm, an AK 47 assault rifle and its fully-loaded magazine, were later handed over to the police, but the soldier in question has not been formally charged.
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From The Daily News, 5 April
MDC MP escapes attack by gunmen
Tafadzwa Musekiwa, the MP for Zengeza, yesterday fled in a state of undress after six men armed with AK47 rifles threw teargas canisters into his bedroom. The opposition MDC MP said around 2am yesterday, six people who were in civilian clothes forced their way onto his premises and broke the window to his bedroom. They ordered him to come out saying they wanted to talk to him. Musekiwa said: "When I looked through the window, I saw three men armed with AK rifles and another three holding teargas canisters. I realised my life was in danger." When he refused to open the door, one of the men threw two teargas canisters into his bedroom, smashing the windows in the process. "I was lucky to survive because my assailants were also affected by the tear smoke, resulting in them retreating. I then ran out of the house naked to make my escape. I was given something to wear by an elderly woman in the neighbourhood," he said. Musekiwa said while he was still in his house he called the police at Zengeza Police Station but there was no response.
In a related incident in the same constituency, the police arrested eight Zanu PF supporters after they stripped naked and assaulted Netsai Usavihwevhu, 26, in Unit J for wearing an MDC T-shirt. More than 30 Zanu PF supporters then burnt Netsai’s T-shirt before tearing her skirt, leaving her completely naked. Neighbours came to her rescue. The rowdy Zanu PF youths later broke three doors and a window at the home of Usavihwevhu’s mother, Lorraine, 43, who is the constituency chairperson of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA). They allegedly stole $6 500 including the civic organisation’s campaign material. The officer-in-charge of Zengeza Police Station, who identified himself only as Inspector Dondo, denied receiving any distress call from Musekiwa. Musekiwa, who sustained a cut on his left foot in the escape, said he also called the police in Harare who promised to assist, but they did not turn up. The MP said later in the morning, he received several calls from people who said they were policemen and were at his house to investigate the incident. "As I approached my home, I saw a white Defender vehicle parked about 50 metres from the house. But, to my surprise, some of the attackers were still there and so I hastily fled from the scene," Musekiwa said. He again phoned the police, who later arrived at his house and advised him not to touch one of the teargas canisters, which had not exploded.
In the run-up to the presidential election, Musekiwa’s house was attacked by Zanu PF supporters who accused him of mobilising support for the MDC in Chitungwiza. In the case of Lorraine Usavihwevhu, she said: "They threatened to come back at night to bomb my house and use it as their torture camp." The NCA is preparing to stage a nationwide demonstration tomorrow to demand a new constitution and protest the manipulation of the flawed Constitution by Zanu PF to rig last month’s election won by President Mugabe.
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From News24 (SA), 5 April
Suspension 'based on consultation'
Abuja The decision to suspend Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth was based on a briefing by the group's secretary general after consultations with Commonwealth leaders, and on the group's election observer report, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said on Friday. Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth last month by a troika of Commonwealth leaders: the presidents of Nigeria and South Africa and the prime minister of Australia. Obasanjo told a press conference during a visit by Canada's Prime Minister Jean Chretien that the decision had been taken after Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon presented them with the Commonwealth observers' report on the March 9-11 elections in Zimbabwe, and briefed them on his talks with "about 18" Commonwealth leaders. "When we got the (observers') report we were briefed by the secretary general of the Commonwealth on his consultations with about 18 Commonwealth leaders, and based on that report, and the briefing we got, we took the decision we did," Obasanjo said. The president had previously stated that the decision was based purely on the report compiled by the observer group, led by former Nigerian military ruler Abdulsalami Abubakar. Obasanjo denied that the decision had been forced on Africans by Western powers, noting that apart from him, South African President Thabo Mbeki had also endorsed the decision, in which two of the three participants were African leaders. "It was not an African leaders' decision. It was not a Western leaders' decision. It was a Commonwealth decision," Obasanjo said.
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From News24 (SA), 5 April
Zim pushed on peace deal
Harare - Zimbabwe's main rival political parties are expected to start meeting next week for talks as pressure mounts on key players to find solutions to the political and economic crises bedevilling the country. Preparations for the talks began on Thursday when two facilitators appointed by prominent African leaders, presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, consulted with the two parties on the agenda of the talks. But analysts are pessimistic at the outset, saying the talks will not yield much to help Zimbabwe recover from its problems after last month's disputed elections that returned long-time ruler Robert Mugabe to power for another six years. "From day one the talks are a flop," said John Makumbe, a political analyst. "I think it's chasing of the wind. There is nothing to be expected of it, because the two sides are so far apart. "Its very unlikely that it will result in the resolution of the crises the country is facing," said Makumbe.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which lost the polls to Mugabe, has been insisting that it wants a legitimate government and believes the vote was stolen from it. The MDC is likely to argue that it cannot negotiate with an illegitimate government and demand fresh elections, while Zanu PF is adamant that the polls were free and fair. "These two positions are extremely variant that there can be any compromise. I think both sides are playing mouse, I don't think their hearts are in it," Makumbe said. And neither side views either of the facilitating countries as neutral players. The MDC does not seem happy with South Africa because it declared last month's elections free and fair, while Zanu PF may not be particularly comfortable with both South Africa and Nigeria because they kicked its government out of the Commonwealth, says Makumbe. "It's almost like they need another arbiter," said Makumbe.
Zanu PF's spokesperson Jonathan Moyo, was quoted in The Herald as saying his party was going into the talks to see whether "we are talking about the same things" with the MDC. "We hope we are not dealing with fair weather political parties who think that dialogue depends on the climate," said Moyo in response to the MDC's calls for end to post-electoral violence and retribution against its supporters. The talks, which state media have dubbed "nation-building," are the first ever the two have held at national level since the MDC was formed in 1999 and first shot to prominence after the 2000 legislative polls in which it won nearly half of the 120 contested seats. The two parties held separate exploratory talks on Thursday with the facilitators from Nigeria to establish an agenda for the substantive talks.
The Nigerian and South African presidents last month urged the country's political players to get together to help solve the country's political and economic woes. "There is a lot of push from South Africa and Nigeria on both sides," said Makumbe. Although Mugabe has previously dismissed the MDC as a puppet party of Britain, he last month called on the MDC "to come closer and work together with us" both within and outside parliament. Another political commentator, Clever Mumbemgegwi, said: "There is an increasing realisation in this country that what we need is a unity of purpose as Zimbabweans." He said on state television that the unprecedented talks presented an opportunity for Zimbabwe to "design a new architecture for a political dispensation for the future ... in which the opposition knows what its role is and government knows what its role is." "We cannot deny that we have two dominant parties in this country at the moment," he said.
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From SABC News, 5 April
Mugabe fares worst in African survey
Zimbabweans were fed up with President Robert Mugabe and his government 18 months before his re-election last month, African researchers said today. Zimbabweans were the least satisfied and least trustful of their government of 12 nations in emerging African democracies, Gyimah Boadi, of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development, told a news conference in Cape Town. Masipula Sithole, a Zimbabwean academic, said the research vindicated those governments that rejected the outcome of last month's presidential election, which was marred by violence and intimidation. Presenting the results of a comparative study of public attitudes to government in 12 African countries, Boadi and other researchers in the pan-African study said Zimbabweans were the least satisfied on almost every standard measured by the Afrobarometer Network in a 27-month study.
The Afrobarometer project polled between 1 200 and 2 400 people in each of 12 African countries that had implemented some measure of political and economic reform, to test their perceptions of government, their concerns and expectations. Mugabe earned the lowest personal score with only 20% saying they trusted him to any degree at all. Only 3% said they were at all satisfied with his economic management. The next lowest score, 38% trust, went to then-president Frederick Chiluba of Zambia, who chose not to stand for an unconstitutional third term last year. The survey, which will be repeated over the next 12 months, showed that Africans put freedom, civil liberties and delivery ahead of elections and multi-party competition in their definition of democracy. The surveys were conducted in Botswana, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
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From Business Day (SA), 6 April
Mugabe's cronies upset by travel ban
Smart sanctions by the United States on select Zimbabweans have started a wave of whinging in reports published in the country's only independent and privately owned Sunday newspaper, the Zimbabwe Standard. While the United States Embassy in Harare will not divulge names of people on its list, the paper has in the last month reported that a Member of Parliament and the wife of the army commander who has game hunting investments have found themselves to be targeted. Also written about - though through hearsay - is an unnamed businessman linked to arms sales.
Jocelyn Chiwenga, wife of Zimbabwe National Army commander Lieutenant-General Constantine Chiwenga, was to have travelled to Las Vegas to attend an international hunting show. "She said she planned to use the show to promote trophy hunting on her Kazungula hunting concession where she has a lodge," the paper reported. "The Standard is informed that the trophy hunts are being co-ordinated by the Department of National Parks which intends to recruit war veterans as professional hunters to assist prospective international hunters." It said Chiwenga refused to discuss her failed visa application but confirmed she had bought air tickets to travel to the US to attend the Safari International Convention in Las Vegas.
The unnamed businessman the Standard wrote about reportedly called Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner and was "said to have been taken aback when Kansteiner is said to have stopped short of calling him an unashamed liar". "Kansteiner one-by-one went through a number of deals that the businessman was involved in with or on behalf of Zanu PF and the government, including arms sales. "Said one top source: "He (named businessman) was really taken apart. He was shocked because he never expected Kansteiner to have that information about him. He was trying to lobby to get himself off the list, but he did not realise how serious and thorough the Americans have been about this whole thing. I have not myself seen the list of individuals to be targeted, but I understand it is quite frightening.""
The Member of Parliament, Philip Chiyangwa, from Chinyoyi which has been a hot spot of farm invasions and election violence, was quoted as saying: "Why are they interested in Chiyangwa? I do not need anybody to tell me which country I should or should not visit. Is America our God? To hell with them. All Zanu PF members will take appropriate action against this move as we have not committed any crime. We will respond very soon. We are going to take steps to match their actions, steps against the American, British and Swiss nationals working here. We are busy consulting others so we can chart the way forward," he told The Standard. "My journeys are confined to countries in Africa. I have banned myself from other countries in the past five years. They will never see me landing on their soil."
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From The Independent on Sunday (UK), 7 April
Zimbabwe protests stifled by riot police
Scattered clashes broke out yesterday as hundreds of police officers blockaded cities and towns in Zimbabwe to thwart street protests called by a coalition of civic groups to demand a new constitution, followed by a fresh presidential election. In the capital, Harare, police manned roadblocks on most approaches to the city centre and sealed off the central square, blocking the starting-point of a planned march. Riot police were on sidewalks, street corners and at bus and parking lots. Edwina Spicer, a television journalist, was arrested, together with her husband Newton, apparently while filming police deployments. Zimbabweans collected in small groups for the protests, organised by the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), a coalition of trade unions, professional organisations, student bodies and church groups. But any gatherings were quickly dispersed by police in riot gear, and none of the protesters were able to reach the planned sites of marches to be addressed by NCA leaders. "We have resorted to guerrilla tactics to try and circumvent the police, said Lovemore Madhuku, chairman of the NCA. "We are avoiding forming one large group, as this might result in losses of life."
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has rejected Mr Mugabe's victory over its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, in last month's presidential election, which was widely condemned as rigged, but yesterday the President ruled out a fresh election. "The next poll will be held in six years ... Let that sink into Britain and its surrogates in the MDC," Mr Mugabe told a meeting of his party's central committee. Mr Mugabe described the protests as "senseless" on Friday, while the Home Affairs Minister, John Nkomo, issued an order banning them. Hundreds of people were arrested earlier in the week, including about 400 women and children rounded up in the poor suburbs of Harare on Thursday as they were meeting to plan the demonstrations. But the NCA vowed to press ahead, saying it was illegal for the government to ban peaceful protests. Human rights groups say 10 opposition supporters have died and thousands of government critics and opposition activists have been arrested, beaten and tortured since the election as part of a continuing campaign of harassment and violence against government critics. "It's as if we are being ruled by an occupation force instead of a civilian government," said Professor Elphas Mukonoweshuro of the University of Zimbabwe.
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From The Observer (UK), 7 April
By the truckload, women against Mugabe have their day in court
Women members of Zimbabwe's National Constitutional Assembly, who had been arrested for holding a meeting to demand a new constitution, begin arriving at Harare's magistrates court yesterday. About 350 had been arrested as police continued a crackdown on protests against the election last month of President Robert Mugabe for a new term. The elections have been denounced as fraudulent. The High Court ruled that the women had to appear in court by yesterday afternoon or be released. Meanwhile, police chased protesters through the streets of Harare. Twenty people were arrested, some of whom had been beaten, said the organisers of the demonstration. Zimbabwe introduced tough new security laws earlier this year banning public protests and gatherings that had not been given approval by the police. Penalties for breaking these laws range from fines to a year in prison.
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From News24 (SA), 6 April
War vets open fire on farmer
Bulawayo - One person was abducted and another threatened on Saturday morning by a group of Zimbabwean war veterans who demanded that they leave their farm at Inyathi in Matabeleland, Commercial Farmers Union spokesperson Jenni Williams said. Williams said the farm came under attack on Friday afternoon when a group of war veterans surrounded the house, demanding that the owner leave immediately. She said the owner of the farm, Richard Pascal, was in town and was escorted back to his farm by police. Williams claimed that the war veterans threatened to kill Pascal in the presence of police. Pascal and another person tried to leave the farm on Saturday, but were confronted by some 50 war veterans. "Pascal was able to escape. As he ran toward the house, gunfire broke out and continued until after he had gone into the house. The other person was allegedly abducted," she said. Williams said over the last few weeks, farmers in Matabeleland received a letter from the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association advising them to leave their farms immediately. "The letter attacks white farmers for the perceived wrongdoing of the opposition political party, Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the Governments of Britain and United States who have imposed sanctions," she said. She said the letters were delivered by a group of about 20 people who went from farm to farm, urging illegal settlers on the farms to make sure that the farmers leave.
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From The Daily News, 6 April
Zanu PF delegation to talks too combative
Authoritative sources privy to the negotiations between Zanu PF and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) yesterday roundly condemned the composition of the Zanu PF delegation to the talks saying it was clear that the ruling party was not keen to negotiate in good faith. Describing the Zanu PF delegation as combative, the sources said the ruling party's representatives had a reputation for openly remonstrating with virtually all MDC officials and other foreign dignitaries. Citing Professor Jonathan Moyo as an example, the critics said it was common knowledge that he had never been elected anywhere in his entire political life. "All he can do is to insult people. He has insulted every person in the MDC and the civic movement. He has verbally attacked many countries on this planet. Even some of his colleagues in Zanu PF have not been spared his wrath. Is this a person who should be part of a serious Zanu PF delegation to any talks ?" asked a well-placed source, who added that the inclusion of Moyo was deliberately meant to provoke the MDC.
"From the onset, the inclusion of Moyo guarantees the total collapse of the talks. In fact, the whole delegation is combative and does not appear to have sufficient mandate to enter into meaningful dialogue," one critic pointed out. The sources said while the MDC had sent a high-level delegation to the talks, the composition of the Zanu PF delegation was an insult to Presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, who have demonstrated their commitment to serious dialogue on Zimbabwe. Commenting on the items on the Zanu PF agenda, critics said it was foolhardy for Zanu PF to include the issues of sovereignty, land and national values. A leading political analyst said Zanu PF's controversial election victory had also failed to attract the respect and recognition of leading nations such as Britain and the United States. Meanwhile, the MDC said in a statement yesterday, that, Zanu PF's lack of seriousness was manifesting itself in the party's intensification of political violence and retribution campaign mostly in rural areas which have left many families homeless, while thousands were now internally displaced refugees.
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From The Daily News, 6 April
Zanu PF demands food from Rusape retailers
Shop owners in Rusape, were on Wednesday ordered to reserve food for senior Zanu PF officials, police, war veterans and members of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) whenever they received food supplies. Shop owners who refused to comply would be dealt with, but the action was unspecified, according to one shop owner. "I received letters on Wednesday afternoon that I was asked to read carefully and comply with. They did not threaten me but promised to come back. We will do what they want, otherwise we are targeted. A lady from the Zanu PF district office came in the afternoon and demanded the letters back," he said. He said among the senior ruling party officials to benefit from this latest directive by the war veterans was the secretary for external affairs in the politburo, Didymus Mutasa, who is also the Member of Parliament for Makoni North, Gibson Munyoro, Makoni West MP, Dr Sakupwanya, Rusape town council chairman and deputy secretary for health in the politburo, Shadreck Chipanga, MP Makoni East. Senior police officers, CIO members, war veterans and selected individuals were also listed to benefit under the new directive.
Other shop owners and managers who confirmed receiving the letters in the town said the instructions were the latest in a series of interferences with businesses by the war veterans, now in charge in Rusape. Discrimination for political reasons has also been reported. Several members of the Rusape community perceived or suspected to be Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters have been forcibly removed from queues for basic food items. A war veteran in the district executive committee, Mufoko Chinzambwa denied the allegations and said some people were good at pointing out wrongdoing by Zanu PF. He said no one had been denied the right to buy food. They have instead assisted people to buy in an orderly manner, he claimed. Despite his denials, most shop owners and their employees said some war veterans and Zanu PF youths always demanded to know the quantities of basic food commodities stored in the shops, giving directives influenced more by politics than business considerations. They accused the ruling party supporters of being greedy. The same people were always in the queues demanding the scarce commodities at the expense of other customers unknown in Zanu PF circles.
Susan Zindi, 51, a vegetable vendor in Rusape's Vengerehigh-density suburb said the ruling party supporters, police and war veterans were using their relatives to sell the commodities at inflated prices on the streets. "Why don't you expose the corruption by the war veterans and Zanu PF supporters, and even the police? Most of them now use their positions to run their tuck-shops. They buy cooking oil, mealie-meal and sugar, and stock their tuckshops then resell them at very high prices. They are doing whatever they want here. Where do some of us who are known MDC supporters buy from?" asked Zindi. Most basic commodities were gazetted for price controls last year because of continued price hikes. Since the price controls were gazetted, most basic commodities have been in short supply.
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From The Sunday Times (UK), 7 April
Mixed fortunes for Mugabe’s men
Below are extracts from the UK Sunday Times Rich List, listing the wealthiest people in Britain.
Nicholas van Hoogstraten
| | Ranking | Net worth | Sector |
| 2002 | 595= | £60m | Property and farming |
| 2001 | 159= | £200m | |
Van Hoogstraten, 57, is due to stand trial this week on a charge of murdering Mohammed Sabir Raja, a retired businessman, in 1999. The property tycoon, charged with two other men, has been on conditional bail. He still has not finished Hamilton Place, his £40m East Sussex mansion, and has been in dispute with builders. The home, complete with mausoleum, was first conceived 15 years ago as one of the largest and most expensive country houses to be built in Britain in the past 100 years and is designed to hold his art treasures. In addition, he has huge farming and mining interests in Zimbabwe. Given the volatile political and economic situation in the country we cut our valuation of van Hoogstraten to £60m - and believe he may fall further.
John Bredenkamp
| | Ranking | Net worth | Sector |
| 2002 | 33 | £720m | Tobacco and investments |
| 2001 | 48 | £550m | |
Bredenkamp is expanding his business empire in Africa with the opening of a new cigarette factory to support his tobacco interests. Based in Berkshire, Bredenkamp, 61, made his original fortune from the £70m sale of another tobacco business, Casalee Group, in 1993. The former Rhodesian rugby captain also has interests in oil, tourism, property and commodities. In total, his various interests have annual sales of well over £250m.
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 7 April
Mugabe's Congo fortune under fire
Ruthless states have raped the country of its riches
Franz Kruger
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his counterparts in Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda could soon find themselves cut off from millions of US dollars in revenue from mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the first significant agreement to emerge from the Inter-Congolese Dialogue at Sun City, South Africa, delegates from the government and opposition parties agreed to review dubious contracts and concessions. Mugabe's government, together with Societe Miniere de Bakwanga, runs the country's largest diamond mine. In 1999, its annual production was worth around R4.4-billion. Both Rwanda and Uganda became exporters of diamonds - a natural resource that neither country possesses - after their troops occupied mining regions in the country. The agreement at Sun City would see a transitional government in the Congo reviewing war-time contracts for the exploitation of gold, diamonds and other natural resources.
The conflict in the Congo is estimated to have claimed two million lives and to have displaced a similar number of people. Congo ambassador to Pretoria Bene M'Poko, who led the government team in the economic and financial commission at the talks, said the Congo's natural wealth had contributed to the war. The country has significant hydroelectric potential on the Congo river, large deposits of gold, diamonds, copper and cobalt, as well as valuable hardwoods and the world's biggest deposits of coltan - a strategic mineral used in aerospace and cellphone technologies. "The country is a victim of its resources," M'Poko said. "A lot of people are taking advantage of the war to exploit those resources illegally." Thomas Nziratimana, chief Southern African representative of the Rwandan-backed rebel group RCD-Goma, said: "We have said we need to put up a commission which will be under the transitional government that will look at the details - and I say each and every detail of the contract - to see whether the interests of the country have been alienated."
With the more difficult political and military issues still no closer to resolution, the delegates found common ground on the recovery plan partly because each side believes the other will be seriously embarrassed by a review of the contracts. Rebels and government point fingers at each other for giving away the country's riches. The tragedy for the Congo is that, on this score, everybody is right. A UN panel of experts investigated the exploitation of its natural resources and presented a series of detailed reports pointing fingers at almost everybody involved in the war. In its most recent report, the panel said the initial reasons for the involvement of outside armies were political and security-related. Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi, for instance, got involved to protect themselves against "negative forces" some associated with the Rwanda genocide of 1994 - operating in the lawless eastern Congo.
But the panel says the primary motive is now "extracting the maximum commercial and material benefits. This holds true for both government allies and rebel supporters." The panel highlights the role of Zimbabwe, which it says has been awarded lucrative diamond mining concessions in return for supporting the Kinshasa government. The concessions, operated by a Zimbabwe Defence Force company called Osleg, carry the cost of Harare's military involvement. It also quotes a report by Global Witness on a logging concession that would see Zimbabwe given the rights to exploit hardwood resources. It is not clear whether this concession has been implemented. On the rebel side, the panel describes how exploitation of coltan finances the activities of the RCD-Goma, and benefits its Rwandan backers. Uganda, backing another rebel group, exports more gold than it produces, the panel finds. That gold must come from the Congo, proving that Uganda, too, benefits from the war. These economic interests will make it difficult for the participating countries to pull back their troops, as required by the Lusaka peace accord, says Henri Boshoff, a military analyst with the Institute for Security Studies. Angola and Namibia pulled back since they had few economic interests. "But Zimbabwe has a lot of interests, as do Uganda and Rwanda. It's not going to be easy for them to leave."
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From The Sunday Independent (SA), 7 April
Mbeki was told Zim counting was rigged
Australian Prime Minister John Howard has told President Thabo Mbeki and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo that Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the recent presidential election, but that hundreds of thousands of votes were shifted to change the result after the votes had been counted. Diplomatic sources told The Sunday Independent that Howard's information, explained to Mbeki when they met in London last month, was widely believed by Western governments, and that it was based on diplomatic reports from the Zimbabwean capital, Harare. Those reports said that despite all the underhand pre-election activity by President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party - including violent intimidation, last-minute changes to the election laws and the disenfranchisement of thousands of voters when voters were chased from voting stations - Tsvangirai won. Asked to comment on the report that Howard gave Mbeki this information at their meeting, Mbeki's spokesperson, Bheki Khumalo, said: "We don't want to be part of what we consider malicious gossip."
This new information about the election result emerged as South African and Nigerian mediators were trying to broker an agreement between the two main Zimbabwean political parties amid rising tension in Zimbabwean towns. Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is demanding new elections under international supervision, while Mugabe said on state television on Friday night the next election would be in six years' time. An unconfirmed report in the Zimbabwe Financial Gazette said Zanu PF was planning to offer to cut Mugabe's term from six years to three. Tensions are rising in the main towns, and on Thursday night 350 women, including pregnant mothers and those with babies, were arrested and are being held prisoner in Harare in what is believed to be the biggest arrest of women in Zimbabwean history. Before the election, South Africa asked Mugabe to step down in favour of a new Zanu PF candidate, but Mugabe refused.
According to diplomatic sources, Zanu PF leaders took the voting figures to a Zanu PF command centre, where the speaker of parliament, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who lost his seat at the last election to the MDC, but is allowed to be speaker because he is an ex-MP, and the national security minister, Nicholas Goche, presided over the changing of thousands of votes. Mnangagwa, who is not only the speaker, but is also the administrative secretary of Zanu PF, which is the equivalent of secretary-general of the party, is considered Mugabe's choice to succeed him as president. Tsvangirai had a substantial lead after the vote count, which was sent to the Harare headquarters of the Election Supervisory Commission, the sources said. From there the figures were supposed to be sent to the registrar-general of elections to announce the result. The commission made its total vote count public, but did not break down the support of individual candidates.
Evidence that the final official count had been substantially tamp |
